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Platinum Card Talk Member |
Pass the word, never prepay on this one. Also looks like they just bailed on several celebrities for the Atlanta show this weekend. Didn't pay the travel costs. https://www.wsmv.com/news/bbb-...55-4fc5b86c583e.html https://www.bbb.org/us/tn/spri...-37112495/complaints http://www.filmbuffonline.com/...er-stalker-fan-fest/ ____________________ Just because it's rare doesn't mean it's valuable. | ||
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| Platinum Card Talk Member |
Interesting. I attended just one Fan Fest event, wasn't impressed. Then again I'm not one to get in person autographs or photos. | |||
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| Bronze Card Talk Member |
I'm not surprised, and I'm not sad. These events were ridiculous. Their prices are so stupid that they have to do crazy deals like buy one, get THREE free, all the celebrities hike their autograph and photo prices to match (e.g. the year Hayley Atwell did both Fan Fest London and MCM Comic Con London, she charged 40% more at Fan Fest), and the event itself was poor. A sparsely laid out hall with a few tables and no effort to provide anything else. Most of the celebrities didn't even do Q&As. In London specifically, they were also foolish enough to hold it the exact same weekend as another major London con. | |||
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Diamond Card Talk Member |
This reminds me of the 3 biggest careers mentioned these days when you ask someone what they do for a living. I'm an Entrepreneur. I'm an Activist. I'm a Promoter. Translation, I don't do anything.  Or worse, they collect money for things they don't do. | |||
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| Platinum Card Talk Member |
I went to three with each one successively losing in quality. Still, I can't say it was a bad time. Seems like when they restructured their VIP tickets to pretty much equal out to paying a lot of money for nothing is when I began to see a stream of bad press and social media. I have been banned from posting on the Walker Stalker site due to my......uhmmm.....honesty.  I have been watching it this weekend as their flag ship con in Atlanta rolls. The "swag bag" for the Gold and Platinum VIP ticket holders ($600 and up price tag) was literally a brown paper sack. and as of today there were no chairs in the VIP lounge. Laura Tolbert, who has done the services for the deaf for several years tweeted that she will not be there and that WSC has yet to pay any of the interpreters for their services this entire year. The con has requested that deaf people bring their own to Atlanta. I am noticing that they are actively removing negative comments from their facebook but not all at once. ____________________ Just because it's rare doesn't mean it's valuable. | |||
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| Platinum Card Talk Member |
I have to imagine the tough part for a promoter with soemthing like this is diminishing returns. Without new huge hit shows, or huge stars interest has to decline at some point. It also doesn't help that there are so many shows now. When I was in Chicago there were at least 3-4 major shows a year -- probably a lot more than that because there were a ton I didn't even pay attention to. How many times can a celeb show up in Chicago in a year and sell autographs without impacting the demand? I also wonder what's going to happen to other shows. . . I go to comic shows basically hunting for collectibles and original art. The dealer area in shows has shrunk dramatically, and many of the dealers left sell things other than collectibles. . . Many artists now work digitally so there often isn't a lot of art to look at. I'm at the point where I routinely walk out of a convention without buying much of anything. . . (which is a huge waste of a $40-50 fee to walk in the door plus $10-20 for parking). Sadly I'm at the point where I am not going to that many shows just because it's not worth it anymore -- I'm not finding anything to collect . . . Seems like most people are at the show for autographs or photo ops -- either with celebrities, cosplayers, backdrops, themed cars. . . and I wonder if these too are going to have diminishing returns. How many pictures or signed photographs does anyone get with any given celebrity? | |||
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| Gold Card Talk Member |
Raven, the funny thing about "promoter" is that it has a negative connotation to some people. There used to be a guy who ran/promoted a few gem & mineral shows around the country and he didn't like being called a promoter. He would actually respond to you in a correcting tone, "I'm the show manager." Yeah, some people like to assign themselves a nice-sounding title but I really am a "web manager." Jess
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| Gold Card Talk Member |
Webjon, Yeah, when the show is $50 and parking can be $20, you can't find enough stuff to warrant that. There's a smaller show I go to sometimes that charges just $10 and I can park for free a couple of blocks away. Even then, I have to look through boxes to find a few cards and they're always deals to good to pass up on ones at the edge of my interest rather than something I'd really like to find. For you, finding original art for old comics/magazines/anything must be near-impossible now because lots of people started looking for that in the last 15-20 years. There was an episode of "American Pickers" a few years ago in which the guys found some Bruce Minney art for 50's-60's men's adventure magazine covers. They picked out a few and paid hundreds of dollars but collectors who saw that have said they should have paid a lot more. Either the guys just happened to get lucky or they were savvy enough to know they scored big time. I assume they sold everything in a short time. Jess
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| Diamond Card Talk Member |
That would depend on the celebrity and how fanatic the fan. The drawback for a bigger name would be the money required to keep coming back, but pictures with the celebrity are getting even more important than just getting an autograph, even a personalized one. Everything revolves around the camera/phone now and selfies are what fans want. Or they don't even have to be fans especially as long as they come across someone recognizable and the joint photo can go up on their Facebook or Instagram or Twitter page. Seems like selfie collecting is its own hobby these days and it's free if you do it right. So the diminishing returns for these shows may be due in part to the changing habits of fans who are not satisfied with a quick hello and a signed 8x10, but want to literally insert themselves into the picture and will forego the autograph altogether. Looking at some of the dozens of photos posted on various accounts, I think certain people are getting obsessed with this form of stalking and they are just interested in notching as many celebrity names as they can, regardless of who they are or if they even like them. | |||
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| Platinum Card Talk Member |
The small shows can be good -- generally for me it only takes one good dealer/artist to make it worthwhile . . . Then again the last small show I went to there was only one seller that had any cards, and they didn't have anything I was interested in -- partially because they were asking $80 for sketches that routinely sell for $20 -- anyway it took me about 30 minutes to walk the entire show and check that dealer's stock out. It's a bummer, I used to want to go to every show I could, and now I find that I have to talk myself into it. | |||
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Titanium Card Talk Member |
You and me both. There was a time when if there was a show i was there, now i don't go to any of them. There's a whole magazine article right there. ____________________ Come, it is time for you to keep your appointment with The Wicker Man. | |||
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| Diamond Card Talk Member |
You guys are lucky to even say you have shows to turn down. Outside of the NYC Comic Con, which I went to twice and came away with very little merchandise but some amusing stories, I have nothing to reject. Granted my situation is such that I can't travel far anymore, but all the small card/hobby shows and even most of the local flea markets in my area have ceased operations. Mainly a combination or increasing rental space cost and the decreasing number of vendors, which in turn makes the attendance drop because there is little of value to buy, and then the self fulfilling end comes for lack of business. The card collecting hobby is barely represented at the few gatherings I have seen this year. My only outlet for in-person buying has been the one hobby store still open near me and if that ever closes my non-sport buying will just about stop. | |||
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| Member |
Funny you should mention that. Just saw a program about companies setting up selfie tours of cities. They dont give you a tour of the important places and teach you the history, but take you to the best spots to take a selfie. Would not be surprised in the near future that they have these selfie shows with vehicles, sets, costumes etc for people to take selfies with. | |||
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| Bronze Card Talk Member |
Photo ops with anyone remotely recognisable sell out all the time, it seems. In Europe at least. They're much more popular than autographs, and as most celebrities now either ban or charge for selfies, they're much more popular than those as well. I find it very irritating because organisers are so desperate to get as many photo sessions in as possible, it can really limit how much time certain actors can spend at their table signing autographs. Once you take out a morning and afternoon solo photo session, plus some kind of duo or group photo session if there's someone else from the same franchise there, plus their lunch hour and coffee breaks, some people end up barely at their table. Put that situation at an event run by one of the greediest promoters, who charge extra for some kind of "VIP" pass that gets you to the head of the queue no matter when you turn up, and a lot of people can end up queuing all day, and never getting the autographs they wanted because there's no time.This message has been edited. Last edited by: ravenheart, | |||
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